With the majority of online accounting software being cloud-based, businesses are now able to share data securely and conveniently using the cloud, while also enjoying real-time collaboration; factors that enable operational processes to be more efficiently managed.
But did you know that cloud accounting software used by most outsourced tax preparation services, can be used for a lot more than safe data storage, increased performance, and cost-lowering purposes? It also has some outstanding environmental benefits that are impossible to ignore in an age where global warming and climate change pose a very real threat to us all, not to mention the planet we all live on.
Let’s look in a little more detail at how your accounting firm can do its’ bit for the environment by adopting cloud accounting:
You can reduce your carbon emissions
To manage and process huge swathes of data, local servers eat into electricity like hungry wolves, but by adopting cloud accounting, you can less servers, and those that you do use, can be done so more efficiently. Ultimately, this reduces your data centers carbon impact by reducing your consumption of electricity.
You can take a step towards going paperless
Choosing to go paperless is a great way to help save the environment, and simple and effective methods of communication and billing such as email and instant messaging, leave no physical paper trail whatsoever. Giving you the ability to access documents, data, and emails from anywhere with an internet connection, any time of the day or night, when using cloud storage, you don’t even have to collect physical signatures; what could be more convenient, and what could help you reduce paper waste more effectively?
You can use less electricity
Power sources, energy, and cooling are all things demanded by data systems that are conventional in nature. Shifting to the cloud enables you to use a lot less energy, and hence, save a lot more money. In fact, recent data shows that the cloud can help reduce the energy consumed by computing applications, by almost 90%!
You can reduce transportation emissions
By giving your employees the opportunity to work from home and still perform their job effectively thanks to the accessibility of cloud accounting, you can do your bit to reduce CO2 emissions, such as those generated by cars and other forms of transport. The need to meet with clients face-to-face is also eliminated, since all information and data can be shared securely in the cloud, from client to accountant, and vice versa.
The great thing about cloud accounting is that the majority of outsourced service providers use it too, meaning that if your accounting firm decides to help streamline its operations and offer exceptional services to its clients by choosing to outsource bookkeeping, you can still benefit from everything cloud accounting has to offer.
If you’d like to minimize your company’s energy usage, reduce its carbon emissions, and take significant strides towards becoming a cleaner, greener company all-round, the simple shift to cloud accounting may be all it takes.